This thesis seeks to understand how and if the popular claims that hockey is an integral part of the culture in Toronto and Montreal are referenced, oriented to, and/or negotiated in everyday life. Taking the cases of the moves of the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens from Maple Leaf Gardens and the Montreal Forum, respectively, the thesis asks: What can these similar cases tell us about the culture of the cities in which they occurred and, if it is possible, in what ways can the culture of the cities (as a shaping force) be made recognizable in the discourse generated in, around, and by the moves? The perspective taken is a 'radical interpretive' approach, involving a critical blend of interpretive theories and methodologies - including semiology, phenomenology, hermeneutics, and dialectical analysis - that aim to reflexively question the themes that the cases themselves bring to light. The thesis thus concerns itself with issues of cosmopolitanism, globalization, and modernity as well as the concomitant questions of identify, commitment to place, and practical social action in the modern city.

The purpose of this study was to investigate what factors facilitate young ice hockey players’ continuation or dropout from sport. The study considers active players’, dropout player’s, coaches’ and parents’ perspectives. The main model that is used in the study is push/pull/anti-push/anti-pull framework (Fernandez, Stephan & Fouquereau, 2006). Other models used in the study are the developmental model (Wylleman & Lavallee, 2004) and the career transition model (Stambulova, 2003). The interviews were conducted with eight participants including three active players, one dropout player, two coaches, one parent to an active player and one parent to a dropout player. Semi-structured interview guides based on Athletes Retirement Decision Inventory (ARDI) (Fernandez et al, 2006) were used. The results showed that friends and fellowship in the team were the biggest factors that facilitate for a player to continue in ice-hockey. Underlying factors that can influence a player to dropout are high amount of hard training and a lack of organization in the club. Factors outside ice-hockey that can influence a player to dropout is his will to focus more on school and socializing with friends outside the sport.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin -- La Crosse, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 34-37).

Using feminist perspectives, the treatment of women's participation in leisure sport within leisure studies and the sociology of sport, is explored. The review traces the progress made, in moving enquiry away from questions of distribution, towards questions of relations between women and men and how these are reproduced and enacted in leisure and sports experiences. Epistemological and methodological issues f acing feminist researchers in leisure studies and the sociology of sport are outlined. The research explored the dynamics between women's uses and control of time, their framing and definition of leisure sport in their own lives, past and present. A cumulative approach, using several research methods, was developed. Forty women, twenty badminton and twenty hockey players, were research partners. Interactions with each included: use of interview pro formas for personal profiles, participation parameters and weekly time profiles; personal life histories; and questions designed to link, check and provide perspective. The methods were effective for exploring changes in meanings of leisure and sport activities over time. The main findings included the centrality of "others" in women's uses of time and sport experiences, and recurrent themes of autonomy and control, recovery, personal fulfilmont, tensions between commitments and constraints, and sport as "cultural capital". The findings are related to issues of public policy and provision in leisure and sport.

No description available.

This study compared the plantar force distribution between forward ice hockey skating and treadmill skating. Four varsity hockey players from McGill University (age = 22.1 +/- 1.2 years, height = 1.8 +/- 0.1 m, mass = 82.2 +/- 8.6 kg) skated on ice surface and on a specialized treadmill at three velocities (22, 24 and 26 +/- 0.5 km/hr). Results showed higher plantar forces were seen during treadmill skating prior to push off and this discrepancy was due to consistently larger forces in the fore region of the foot. This phenomenon was speculated to be the result of differences in skate stability during ice and treadmill skating. With respect to the loading dynamics, the heel region was the same during ice and treadmill skating.

This thesis reports findings from a study that analyzed the sponsorship strategies, objectives, and benefits of the Canadian Hockey Association's women's ice hockey support program. There has been a notable increase in recent years in the number of women sport spectators and sport participants in ice hockey, which has increased the sport's potential for sponsorship. Women's ice hockey is Canada's fastest growing sport with approximately 40,000 females registered from coast to coast - an increase of over 400% in the last 10 years. (http://www. canadianhockey.ca). Although small in size compared to the men's program, (Women= 37,700, Men= 470,714) these numbers suggest that women's hockey is a good candidate for targeted sponsorship marketing approaches such as direct marketing and relationship marketing. Relationship and direct marketing are approaches to marketing and business communications that have emerged recently in the literature and can be used to enhance the benefits of sponsorship. Relationship marketing can be described as an integrated effort to identify, maintain, and build a network with individual customers and to continuously strengthen the network for the mutual benefit of all parties involved (McDonald and Milne, 1997). Direct marketing methods can be used to help identify, build and maintain relationships with customers and prospective customers using database technologies. According to Shani (1997), database marketing is a necessary tool to implement relationship marketing and involves the collection of information about past, current, and potential customers to build a customer database. The thesis study was designed to assess the marketing and sponsorship activities of thirteen major corporate partners involved in the women's program at the premier ($500,000+), broadcaster, or associate/program ($100,000+) levels. Eight corporate partners participated in the study. Interviews were conducted, in each case, in the offices of the respective corporations. Each interview was recorded and transcripts were prepared of the tape recordings. In addition to the audio recordings and transcripts, observations were made on-site and a wide range of sponsorship-related promotional materials were collected. The data were analyzed according to the corporate objectives, strategies and benefits obtained and the marketing & sponsorship methods that were utilized. Four major sponsorship objectives were found, ranging from traditional goals such as brand (and corporate) image & awareness and community involvement to more innovative objectives in sales and integrated promotions and advertising. Nine core corporate programs offered to the sponsors by the CHA are outlined in the thesis including: the Initiation Program; Skills Development Program; Experience a Dream; Fun Days; Medals of Achievement; Schools Program; PlayRight; the Coaching Certification, Development and Rewards Program; and Women in Coaching and Role Model Seminars. The research found a number of benefits of these core programs for the sponsors, including opportunities for relationship marketing, direct marketing, and niche marketing. Although for the most part CHA sponsors were very optimistic and supportive of the women's ice hockey program, there were a number of barriers and issues that concerned them. This research shows, however, that corporate partners for the most part were able to overcome these barriers and that they felt it was important to support the women's game of ice hockey in Canada.

No description available.

The purpose was to compare the blood lactate response and performance of varsity hockey players to recreational players, and to provide a shift by shift analysis of blood lactate accumulation in a simulated ice hockey task. Ten university, varsity players and ten recreational players performed a continuous aerobic treadmill test (VO2max), a 45 s Wingate test, and four trials of the Repeat Sprint Skate (RSS) test. Each RSS test consisted of four repetitions of a 91.4 m skate with repetitions initiated on 30 s intervals. To simulate game, competition, 5 min of recovery separated each RSS test. Results indicated: (1) performance of the varsity players was superior (p < 0.01) to that of the recreational players in the RSS test; (2) four shifts of the RSS test elicited similar peak blood lactate concentrations for the varsity and recreational groups; (3) change in blood lactate following 15 min of passive recovery was similar in the two groups, and (4) there was a significant relationship (&prop; = 0.05) between performance indices in the RSS test and corresponding variables measured in the 45 s Wingate test.

The purpose of this study was to measure the intensity and duration of ice hockey play for six university hockey players (three forwards and three defencemen) and to compare them with the results to a similar study published in 1976. Comparisons of heart rate output and time-motion characteristics between forwards and defencemen were examined as well as differences in intensity between practices and games. The players performed at significantly lower intensity, had less playing time per shift, and had less playing time per game than the players in the 1976 study. Both investigations had similar bench times between shifts. The forwards had significantly different time-motion characteristics from the defencemen but similar playing time intensity. The intensity of games was higher than practices in terms of on-ice intensity but similar in terms of total time above a threshold intensity ($ geq$ 70% of HRmax).